This is pretty sad, I had to go all the way to the New York Times to read about an initiative going on in my hometown, Paris, France. Admittedly, we French(wo)men are somewhere on the other side of weird. But when you keep this in mind, the latest campaign to make the city “greener” doesn’t seem that offputting.

Parisians are given free sparkling water to wean them from an overconsumption of plastic bottles. A new fountain is now present in the Jardin de Reuilly (a public park) to offer an alternative to plastic bottles. On a side note, this is a great idea, in a nice park, too bad it’s at the other end of the city! Why not put in near the Panthéon, in the Jardin du Luxembourg where everyone, from lawyers, to students, to tourists to old rich ladies goes.

Grumpiness aside, the fountain is connected to the public water system. Then again, this coming from a city that took forever to notice that the main cemetary, being so close to the market and the underground water supply was poisoning the whole town with its decay…Ok, ok, that was during Middle Ages, but I still haven’t forgiven Paris for that Cimetière des Innocents fiasco.

The fountain produces 920 gallons a day, that translates to 2,300 plastic bottles saved. There’s a huge potential for this initiative because French people consume 40 gallons of bottled water per person per year. That’s the highest amount per capita in the world. Take that Diet Pepsi!